A Honduran accused of masterminding the Christmastime massacre of 28 men, women and children will be deported from Houston to his homeland for prosecution after being caught trying to sneak across the U.S. border.

Lester Rivera Paz, 29, the reputed leader of the Honduran branch of the violent MS-13 gang, will serve seven months in a U.S. prison, U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Friday.

After Rivera pleaded guilty to illegally re-entering the United States for the fifth time, Hittner ordered him to be deported after serving his sentence.

Rivera asked Hittner, "Please send me back to my own country to pay for the crimes I caused there."

Honduran law enforcement officials are just as eager for Rivera to return.

"We all know he was behind the shooting," police inspector Leonel Sauceda, a spokesman for the country's security ministry, said Friday. "So when he is done with his seven months there, he will come back to face Honduran justice."

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, is blamed for violence in Houston and throughout the United States.

He was awaiting trial along with 11 other suspected members of the MS-13 gang on charges that they massacred 28 bus passengers, according to a statement issued by the Honduran government.

U.S. Border Patrol officials early this year got a tip from their agents in Honduras, who were training border guards, that Rivera was in Mexico and headed for the United States, Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora said.

"We put out a lookout for this guy, and sure enough, he hits the Rio Grande Valley area," Zamora said.

Local law enforcement officers arrested Rivera on Feb. 10 near Falfurrias and turned him over to U.S. Border Patrol agents, who used fingerprints and photographs to identify him, Zamora said.

Rivera is so notorious in Honduras that President Ricardo Maduro called a news conference to announce the arrest.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston declined to discuss any charges that might be pending against Rivera, but the arrest was significant enough that it was mentioned in two congressional hearings in April.

ICE spokeswoman Luisa Deason said the operation targeted gang members, especially those from MS-13. She said more than 300 MS-13 members have been arrested nationwide since the operation began in February.

In another House subcommittee hearing, FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told congressmen that Rivera was accused of involvement in the slaying of 28 bus passengers, including six children, in San Pedro Sula on Dec 23.

The bus passengers were slain in Chamelecon, a northern slum in the city of about 600,000 near the Guatemalan border.

Swecker said MS-13 members were identified as being responsible for the attack and that a note left at the scene claimed the slayings were in retaliation for anti-gang measures targeting the group.

Speaking from Chamelecon, the Rev. Thomas Goekler, whose church is near the site of the massacre, said the community had yet to shake its grief.

"They still haven't gotten over it," Goekler, 64, said. "How do you get over that?"

In the aftermath of the attack, neighborhood children ran to get Goekler and led him to the devastation.

"The bus was packed with people," he said. "They were just mowed down."

When he got to the scene, Goekler prayed with the families of the dead and wounded and listened to confessions.

"I went to the morgue the next day," he said. "It was senseless, so senseless."